A brake device for a motor vehicle has a brake pedal device (12) that can be operated by a driver with a variable force/travel pedal characteristic curve (V-PKL), a brake apparatus (20) for braking the motor vehicle with a braking effect corresponding to a degree of activation of the brake pedal device (12) and corresponding to the varible force/travel pedal characteristic curve (V-PKL), a memory device (16) with a stored characteristic diagram (KFL) of possible force/travel pedal characteristic curves and with a control device (14) for selecting the variable force/travel pedal characteristic curve (V-PKL) from the characteristic diagram (KFL) of the possible force/travel pedal characteristic curves.